


Loving You Forever

by RevampWriting, UppiePuppy



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Beach Episode, Consensual But Not Safe Or Sane, Day At The Beach, Developing Relationship, Eren Yeager Needs a Hug, Friends to Lovers, God of War - Freeform, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Rating May Change, SOFT GAYS, Slow Burn, Slow To Update, Strangers to Lovers, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Yikes, also violence, for real when we say slow burn, jean gets his ass kicked
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:41:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25097812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RevampWriting/pseuds/RevampWriting, https://archiveofourown.org/users/UppiePuppy/pseuds/UppiePuppy
Summary: Even the other customers seemed shrouded in allure and mystery in the twilight hour, from the family that worked at the bakery up the street chattering loudly in one corner, to the quiet pair of girls who ran the tourist center two streets over by the door, to the pale-skinned man in the opposite corner with a beanie pulled over his head who…Eren blinked, suddenly struck by bewilderment. He didn’t recognize that man.---After leaving college two years earlier than planned, Eren finds himself returning to the Swiss town where he spent much of his childhood to try to piece his life back together. Taking over the bookshop from Armin at the end of the summer isn't a bad start, but it's further removed from the fine arts degree he had been working on before than Eren would like. However, Eren soon finds he has more to worry about than just figuring out his next steps in life when he meets Levi, an unfamiliar face in a town where everyone knows everyone elseAnd Levi? He just wanted a break from Hanji and Erwin, and now he can't seem to let this little town and the green-eyed brat that lives in it go.
Relationships: Levi/Eren Yeager
Comments: 5
Kudos: 21





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfiction is being written by two users: Revamp and Uppie. We're both busy college students, so bear with us when it comes to the update schedule! New chapters start out as roleplays, and one of the two authors then converts it to a proper chapter format. 
> 
> Uppie writes as Levi, Armin, Mikasa, Hanji, and Jean
> 
> Revamp writes as Eren, Erwin, and various background characters
> 
> Chapters are mainly converted by Revamp, but each chapter will let you know beforehand!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Sometimes I don't really know myself_   
>  _Devil on my back, pray for me, need help_   
>  _Angel in the front tryna guide my steps_   
>  _Who do you call when you need some help?_
> 
> \-- "Let Go" by Beau Young Prince

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written by Uppie, beta read by Revamp

Anatolius groaned as he came to. His head was pounding, and pain ripped through him in waves with every breath. He opened his eyes slowly, wincing at the bright morning light pouring into his small cell. He attempted to pull his arms toward himself, twisting his wrists in the bronze shackles that held them, and found that it was still as fruitless as ever. A strand of greasy hair fell into his eyes and he flicked his head to get it out again, the movement sending a wave of dizziness over him. 

It was hot. His skin felt cracked and dry, and his throat was parched. The sun beat on him, leaving his skin raw and pink even beyond the burns and scars already littering his body. Sweat poured from his brow, leaving him feeling sticky and dewy. The sound of thousands of soldiers thundered over his head. Marching, chanting, fighting. It was loud. Too loud. The sounds of swords clashing and armor scraping against itself grated on his ears, and he grit his teeth each time a man cried out. Somewhere nearby, a woman was crying. 

His knees slipped, losing their grip on the slick, wet floor, and he fell forward toward the stone. The chains caught him, suspending him in midair again, and he groaned as he used all the strength in his weak muscles to pull himself upright again. Only when he’d finally succeeded did he register the laughter coming from a figure in the corner. In a moment, rage rose up in him, drowning out the pain and fear and leaving him hot, with the feeling of something crawling underneath his skin. 

“Belen,” he spat. The other man - healthy, whole, and _clean,_ unlike Anatolius - rose to his feet and stepped forward. 

“Anatolius,” he countered, his voice cool and low. He leaned down to look into the shorter man’s gaze, his eyes light with amusement. “I’ve been told you’re still refusing food.”

Anatolius clamped his jaws shut, glaring up at Belen in stony silence. 

Belen hummed, one corner of his mouth quirking up in appreciation at what he perceived as a comedic attempt at strength. He tapped Anatolius on the jaw in a patronizing sort of way, standing straight again and stepping back. “The Gods will take you soon if you continue,” he chided. “It would be a shame to lose my favorite toy to pride.” He held his hand out and a guard, dressed in the filthy blue armor of the Etruscan army, rushed forward to hand him his favorite shortsword. Without a moment for him to prepare, the blade was plunged into Anatolius’s gut, adding to the wounds - old and new - that already littered his body. 

To his credit, the general held his tongue remarkably well, only the barest hint of a groan passing his lips. Belen hummed and stepped a bit closer, pressing the shortsword in and carding his fingers through the knotted hair atop Anatolius’s head. 

“The Romans have already lost,” he said, his voice too gentle. “The moment they lost their greatest general was the moment the war went to the Etruscans. You’ve nothing left to fight for. Give up.”

Anatolius stared down at his feet in stony silence, the grime-covered stone floor fading in and out of view as he fought the urge to vomit what little was left in his stomach. “I will never bend to the likes of you,” he said, voice steady. “Rome will emerge victorious, even if I never make it back to head my army. They fight with honor, in the name of the Gods.” 

Belen let out a sound of annoyance and twisted the blade in Anatolius’s flesh as he withdrew it, watching with distinct disinterest as blood poured from the wound and dripped to the floor. “You’re a fool if you think Rome will survive this.” 

Anatolius looked up at Belen with a venomous glare, hatred twisting his heart into a painful knot. “So be it,” he spat. 

He had less than a second to prepare before the sword came swinging down.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I met a stranger, a stranger_   
>  _In the city today_   
>  _And I gave her my umbrella_   
>  _'Cause she had no coat on in the rain_
> 
> \-- "Laura" by Jasmine Kennedy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Converted by Revamp

Eren let out a puff of air as the door of the café closed behind him. Though the day was slowly coming to an end – as was the summer season as a whole – the warmth and cloying humidity still lingered, clinging to the stone streets, and to the pale walls and dark roofs of the town’s buildings. Even the ocean seemed like it might be syrupy and lukewarm, if someone leapt from the edge of the city down into it, the bright blue-green surface shimmering at midday like so many jewels under fluorescent light. Though the end of summer lit up the whole town in glistening beauty, ducking under shady awnings and into ventilated buildings had become increasingly appealing. After a long day of errands in the market square and along the edge of town by the cliffs, Eren was all too happy to do the same.

The interior of the café was cooler than it was outside – whether by architecture, the work of a dinky little AC unit, or purely by luck, Eren didn’t know, but he let out a sigh of relief all the same. He could feel the exhaustion weighing on his limbs, his body tired and skin oddly tight, as if his energy was being stifled by a thin layer of condensed ocean air that had gotten under his skin, so he shuffled further into the shop, eyeing the line of customers leading up to the register and adding himself to the back of it, gaze turning towards the chalkboard hanging over the counter with the available drinks and pastries, as well as their prices, scrawled across the chalk-smudged surface.

He sighed slightly when he spotted cold chocolate milk on the menu, drumming his fingers along the strap of his bag thrown over his shoulder. Much as he would love to indulge in something simple, he knew he wasn’t going to get the rest of his work done that night unless he got some caffeine in his system. Despite the internal disappointment, Eren greeted the woman behind the counter with a smile when the people in front of him had been served, ordering instead a white chocolate mocha with two extra shots of espresso. He twisted to dig into his bag for his wallet, abandoning that with a sheepish grin to reach into his pants pocket instead when he recalled he’d stored it there. He shuffled aside with a nod after he’d paid and offered his name for the order, leaning up against the back wall of the café and shoving both his hands into his front pockets while he waited.

It didn’t take long before Eren found his eyes trailing over the interior of the shop, a faint hum rising in his throat. The fading light streaming in through the windows lit everything with a sort of dreamy, surreal air. His fingers itched to trace lines across paper, darken the places that shadows clung to, or sweep brushes across canvas, blend colors together like a captive sunset. Even the other customers seemed shrouded in allure and mystery in the twilight hour, from the family that worked at the bakery up the street chattering loudly in one corner, to the quiet pair of girls who ran the tourist center two streets over by the door, to the pale-skinned man in the opposite corner with a beanie pulled over his head who…

Eren blinked, suddenly struck by bewilderment. He didn’t recognize that man.

 _Odd_ , he thought with a ponderous frown. Nearly everyone in the town was familiar to him by now – whether through hazy memories of his time spent here in previous years, or by relearning the faces (if not the names, too) of the other inhabitants of the town more recently by passing through various shops and other establishments while searching for supplies or inspiration.

He hadn’t realized that he’d been staring until the mysterious man stilled in the middle of turning a page in his book, setting down the cup he’d had pressed to his lips to turn and look around the shop. Eren jolted when gunmetal eyes locked with his own green ones. He stiffened a bit as the stranger very obviously examined him, lifting an eyebrow – _Judgmental? Curious?_ Eren couldn’t tell; the man’s expression was entirely inscrutable – before returning to his book without a second glance. Eren had to shake himself as if from a daze to register the call of his name, jerking forwards to claim his coffee from the boy working behind the counter. He offered him a rushed smile and immediately lifted the cup to his lips to take a sip, shuffling off a few half-paces once more back to his place by the wall.

Hovering awkwardly by the edge of the shop, Eren’s eyes returned to the new arrival in the corner. Curiosity gnawed at him; most people in town really did know _everyone_ – not in the nosy, small town way where everyone was always in everyone else’s business at all times, but it was unusual not to at least know someone else’s name – to the point that seeing a _stranger_ turn up without any fanfare at all was more than a little odd. Eren itched to ask questions, to see if that stony face would crack at all during conversation (he’d been told more than once that he talked too damn much, and told even more often that he poked at other people far, _far_ too often). Still, approaching a complete stranger for no other reason than to ask who they _were_ seemed a little rude, even to him. If nothing else, his mother had instilled social etiquette in him – even if it didn’t seem to pay off very often. He hesitated for a few moments longer, before he pushed away from the wall, curiosity having won out over awkwardness, for now.

He made his way over to the table by the window with a small, uncertain smile. “Hi,” he offered, slightly stilted, fingers of both hands curled tightly around his cup, the coffee held in front of his chest as if for security. “Uh, I don’t think I know you?”

The man did not look up at being addressed, not offering so much as a twitch at the interruption. Instead, he merely turned another page in his book, replying in a deep, flat voice, “ _I’d_ be surprised if you did.”

Eren puffed out a breath that came out like a laugh before he’d even thought about it, though he got the feeling he maybe should have found it insulting, considering how obviously dismissive it was. “Yeah, town’s kinda small,” he went on instead, sharing his thoughts from earlier aloud. “I’d be surprised if there was someone I didn’t know at least in passing.” Realizing belatedly that his words were a bit redundant, he took another sip of his drink to buy himself time, eventually settling on asking, “Are you new to town, then? Or did you move in before the summer started?”

Finally, the man looked up again, eyes looking more silvery up close with the sunset light pouring in through the adjacent window. “You could say I’m new,” he replied at length, his head tilting to the side just slightly. “Though I’d consider myself an infrequent visitor.”

 _How cryptic_ , Eren thought dryly, cracking a crooked grin, eyes skittering from the stranger to the window beside them and back again. “I guess I’m sort of the same,” he hummed, running one hand through his shaggy hair to push his bangs back. Saying so was easier than the truth, anyway. “Or, maybe not visitor. Returnee. Something like that.”

The dark-haired man picked up his cup to take a long sip of whatever drink was inside, nodding slightly when he eventually swallowed. “You grew up here, then?” he inquired, tone perhaps the most robotically polite that Eren had ever heard another human being sound, while his gaze returned to the pages of his book, though from the straightness of his spine and the slight incline of his neck the barest inch in Eren’s direction, he seemed like he was still listening, at least.

The question, though, temporarily knocked words out of Eren’s brain. “Sort of?” he managed after a moment, tipping his head to the side and squinting his eyes. “I was born in Germany, just – moved here when I was thirteen.”

The newcomer (or _infrequent visitor_ , his mind wryly corrected) merely nodded his head in response, falling into silence rather than responding, his gaze sliding out the window.

Eren swallowed, eyes jerking in the same direction, noting the sun dipping lower in the sky outside. A flutter of anxiety curled at the bottom of his stomach, and the same itch in his fingers from earlier intensified upon noting the continually fading light. “Sorry, um–” he sputtered out, clearing his throat abruptly for a moment before turning back towards the man with an apologetic but hopeful quirk of his mouth. “Do you mind if I sit here? I promise I’ll shut up and let you read, just – the lighting’s good.”

Eren didn’t realize he’d been holding his breath until the visitor shook his head. “So long as you don’t make a mess,” he said, gray eyes flashing up towards Eren for a moment.

Eren pulled a face. “How would I make a mess?” he muttered, scrunching up his nose as he sat down in the chair across from the other man. He faintly caught sight of his companion wrinkling his own nose in return, and the brunette huffed a bit under his breath as twisted to rifle through his shoulder bag. The stranger said nothing as Eren set out a leather-bound notebook and dug deeper into the bag for a pencil, but Eren still had to bite back the urge to snap at him.

Eventually, he located one of the pencils buried at the bottom of the bag, yanking it out and immediately turning to his notebook to flip the cover open, rifling through the pages for a blank one to draw on. Images fluttered past on the sheets: an owl, a crashing wave, a pair of gulls hopping along the beach, trees, grass, sun-in-sky, moon-on-clouds, stars-upon-stars lilies-in-water peony-petals-plummeting – a blur of pictures, until, at last, he carefully folded the paper over to the opposite side of the book, smoothing a palm over the unmarked paper. He switched his pencil over to his right hand, head turning towards the sunset outside of the window to watch it for a moment, hand moving as if without his permission or knowledge to begin mapping out quiet lines, his eyes never leaving the outside world as his fingers moved with surety. He barely registered the sound of a faint hum across from him, focused as he was on his work.

Eren finally ripped his eyes away from the town bathed in twilight outside, focusing on the page in front of him. He retraced a few lines, smudged marks here and there with a swipe of his thumb. He bit his lip as he glanced between the window and the page, adding crisper lines and smaller details to the landscape. He briefly glanced across at the other occupant of the table, setting his pencil down with a jolt as he realized (belatedly, yet again) that, though he wasn’t entirely eager to engage, he had skipped over introductions.

“I’m Eren, by the way,” he blurted out, reaching for his coffee cup. “Sorry, I forgot to say that before.”

The man looked up and nodded briskly. “Levi,” he introduced.

Eren hummed and nodded in acknowledgement, smiling a little bit. “Nice to meet you,” he offered, before dropping his eyes back to the page in front of him, taking a long sip of his coffee as he stared contemplatively at the paper, fingers drumming along the side of the cup.

“Likewise, I suppose,” Levi said over the sound of him turning another page in his book.

Eren nodded absently in response, content to leave it at that, and set his cup back down to resume drawing. He went back to nibbling on his lip as he drew, the fingers of his other hand tapping an irregular beat against the side of his notebook and the top of the table as he did so. He forced himself still once every few minutes, before the tapping inevitably picked up again, an almost restless fidgeting amidst his focus. A few minutes later, he stopped tapping long enough to use both thumbs to smudge in either direction around the outline of the lowering sun over the roofs and horizon line in his picture, blurring the graphite to soften the light in the image. He stared critically at the picture for several long moments before giving a frustrated sigh, resuming his tapping with a vengeance as he gazed unhappily at the image, feeling an uncomfortable prickle of dissatisfaction begin to burn down his spine as he tried to figure out why the sketch still looked _off_.

“Is everything _quite_ alright?”

Eren barely avoided jumping in his seat at the pointed quip, looking up hurriedly to find Levi peering at him over the edge of his book, one eyebrow raised just slightly. The brunette swallowed and leaned back against the backrest of his chair, mouth twisting. “Sorry,” he muttered, eyes falling back to his drawing. “Just can’t get this to look right.”

Levi’s gaze fell to the paper. He was silent for several long moments, long enough for Eren’s blood to start to burn in his veins, hot and uncomfortable, before his head tilted just slightly to the side, like he had before. “The shading,” he said. “The cliff-line is the right shade, but it doesn’t darken enough toward the top.”

Eren narrowed his eyes, focusing once again on the paper, examining the aforementioned cliffs. After several long heartbeats, he slowly began to nod. “Yeah,” he murmured, hunching over the page to begin correcting the shading, thumbs smudging graphite across the notebook’s open face intermittently. “Yeah, you’re right.” Any thoughts of irritation at being corrected by a total stranger evaporated as he sat back and reevaluated the drawing with the new adjustments, finding that the art came together far better now. He couldn’t help but smile, and he looked back up at Levi with sparkling eyes.

“Thank you,” he said, sincere.

Levi hummed and nodded. “No problem,” he replied simply, lifting his cup to drain what seemed to be the last of whatever he was drinking. He looked back at the drawing quietly and nodded again. “You’re talented.”

Eren blinked at Levi, his smile falling into owl-eyed shock, before he averted his gaze back to the table between them. “Thank you,” he repeated a little less surely, unconsciously running his fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck.

The dark-haired man leaned back in his chair, shifting, looking Eren up and down again. “You seem surprised,” he noted wryly, raising an eyebrow and lowering his book to the table.

Eren sputtered slightly, reaching compulsively for his mocha and sipping again. “I mean- I know I’m not _bad_ …” _At least not objectively_. “…I’ve been drawing for years. I’ve _heard_ it before, just…” Sure, Armin or Mikasa had said as much to him, before and he’d received the odd compliment from their other friends or from classmates or professors in the past, too. Still, it felt different coming from a total stranger. “I don’t know. I don’t really _know_ you, so.”

Stormy eyes slowly narrowed at that. “And it’s strange for someone you don’t know to comment on your work,” Levi said slowly. “I see.”

The brunette could only shrug, awkwardly bringing his hand back down to fiddle with the edge of his notebook. “It’s just different,” he insisted in a puff of breath, eyes flitting to the window again, the daylight almost entirely faded away, now. He quickly made a few more marks on his page – sharpening the angle of a windowpane here, blending a bit more sunlight there, texturing a wall with a delicate scratch of his fingernail – before sitting back once more, flipping his notebook closed and setting his pencil down.

Levi nodded slowly and moved his mug to the side. “Regardless,” he intoned, waving a hand instead of elaborating further. Eren wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean – sat staring silently at Levi as the other man flipped a page in his book again, frowning and smoothing out a wrinkle in the page with his fingers.

Eren watched his face for a beat longer before ducking his head with a slight nod, small smile reappearing on his face. He quickly reached for his own cup, downing the rest of the white chocolate beverage in a single gulp, before pushing his chair back and standing up, gathering his notebook and pencil to place them back in his bag. “Thanks,” he repeated, then hastened to add, “For, uh- letting me sit here, and for indulging me. And for the compliment? I have to do another errand before I go home for the night, so – I’ve gotta run.”

 _And more paperwork to do with Armin when I get home_ , he added wearily to himself.

Levi didn’t question him, though, only affording him a cursory glance as he continued to peruse his book. “Have a good night,” he said. He once again sounded stiff and robotic, almost toneless, and the man himself must have realized it, because he gave the barest of coughs and sank further into his chair, brow furrowing as he reached for his cinnamon bun, as if to stop himself from speaking again.

Despite the obvious awkwardness of the bidding, Eren couldn’t help but grin brightly at it, gripping the strap of his bag thrown over his shoulder and nodding. “Yeah, you too,” he answered blithely, stepping back. “Bye, Levi.”

Eren waved over his shoulder in parting to his companion. He lifted his hand to the woman behind the front register and the two younger kids scuttling about behind the counter, calling a friendly farewell to them and thanking them for their services. He dumped his empty coffee cup into the trashcan before heading to the café’s entrance. With a final glance across the space towards the table where the stranger still sat, Eren pushed open the door and exited into the cool night, his smile from earlier still lingering on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> updates ain't gonna be this frequent going forward, don't get used to it y'all
> 
> Kudos, comments, & constructive feedback are welcomed!
> 
> \- Rev

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos are an author's reason to live, and constructive feedback is welcome!


End file.
